Nabeel Khan (text) and Tete Garcia (illustrator), Magic Counting, Scribble, June 2024, 22 pp., $24.99 (board), ISBN 9781922585400
One earth turning, where countless creatures live…
Two celestial bodies, watching over our celestial days and nights…
Enter a magical world of counting!
For preschoolers and kindergartners, this is all fun, colour and shapes. Each page offers not only an introduction to mathematics but also geography, science, history and the natural world.
Nabeel Khan has cleverly woven together an engaging foray into the world of numbers by association with the world around us. One earth, five petals on a bloom, to 10 segments of a juicy orange, makes for a comprehensive and playful read. Each fold-out page includes the accompanying geometric shape with a myriad of fun facts.
Tete Garcia’s illustrations bring a burst of colour to every page, deftly crafting an entire learning experience from one to ten. The touch of metallic ink is clever and imbues an artistic sense of magic.
Educators and parents will find this to be a wonderful resource to start a young child’s math journey encouraging play, curiosity and connection to the world around them, and to ‘see’ numbers in a special way. Sturdy and ready for lots of hands, this is a wonderful exploration of numbers through the shapes and patterns around us.
A fantastic introduction to the world of figures and facts!
Reviewed by Shelley Stephens
